shooting fawns

[werner.reiche]

Two differnent topics...my stat is just pure math from the Harvest; simply 400,000 - 1000,000 = 25%

The numbers your taking about is deer mortality, and yes hunters kill closer to 50% of the deer that died

study from Wisconsin; "The rates of mortality were human hunting 43%, starvation 9%, coyote 7%, wolf 6% and roadkill 6%".

(note: they don't mention disease...must be the remainder)

Point is that taking a fawn in an area has little impact on Deer Management....so to say you hurt the herd by killing a fawn is not true.

While I disagreed with other parts of your comments, you are correct about "Point is that taking a fawn in an area has little impact on Deer Management....so to say you hurt the herd by killing a fawn is not true."

[lubahunter]

I agree Trimmer21.

All we're doing is killing off next years hunting,then,we whine and bi**h that the Deer and Moose herd population has tanked.

Other hunters in 47 that I spoke to, said the numbers have declined. Luckly were I was, there were deer.

This is the same argument we have with Moose calf harvest,isn't it? OMNRF has found it necessary to curtail calf harvest in all of Ontario north of the French River to a two-week period. Now,I'm sure not a biologist or anything,but,to my little pea brain,it seems absolutely logical that when adding hunting pressure to predation by Bears,Wolves and Coyotes,something has to give,sooner or later. All we're doing is killing off next years hunting,then,we whine and bi**h that the Deer and Moose herd population has tanked. Our pidgeons are coming home to roost.

[greatwhite]

What is the issue with management of deer in Ontario? NB and NS and I hear Quebec are booming.

[Camp Red Maple]

No food = no deer If your area does not have any food then it cant hold deer. I think the province in general holds a healthy deer population. Some areas have more pressure or tags so there is a dip but it will bounce back.

I remember at my camp a couple of very experienced hunters thought my area would only hold 3-4 deer. The next year we shot 12 and 11 were bucks and there was some missing too. The year after 10. They owned 200 acres near me me (30 minute drive) and gave up on it after a couple years because no sign of dear.

Who knows but meat is always on special at the groceries.

[rackman]

Its a personal choice.I choose no t to shoot fawns or does with fawns

[tweedwolfscream]

This is the same argument we have with Moose calf harvest,isn't it? OMNRF has found it necessary to curtail calf harvest in all of Ontario north of the French River to a two-week period. Now,I'm sure not a biologist or anything,but,to my little pea brain,it seems absolutely logical that when adding hunting pressure to predation by Bears,Wolves and Coyotes,something has to give,sooner or later. All we're doing is killing off next years hunting,then,we whine and bi**h that the Deer and Moose herd population has tanked. Our pidgeons are coming home to roost.

That's totally different. With moose, the system up until now allowed for many times more calves than adults to be killed: only one in every X number of hunters (whatever the large group size in the WMU is) can kill an adult, but every single hunter can kill a calf, and has the same amount of time to do it. So a group of 7 sharing a bull tag can legally kill 6 calves and a bull, and people who aren't even in groups with a tag can also have a calf each. Now they've tweaked it a bit to reduce calf harvest but there's still a lot more allowed calf harvest than adult harvest. In other words the problem with moose wasn't that calves were being killed instead of adults, it was that so many moose -- when you include those who happened to be calves -- were being killed.

With deer the system does not make it easier to tag a fawn than an adult; on the contrary it's a little harder, since anyone can tag an adult buck in any WMU but you need a WMU-specific antlerless tag for a fawn, and unlike with moose, tagging a fawn will use up a tag that could have been used on an adult. No one on this thread is suggesting making more tags available specifically for fawns.

As more knowledgeable people than me on this thread have already explained, there's nothing particularly harmful to the deer population about killing a fawn instead of an adult; if anything it's less harmful. It's just that some people might find it more "wasteful", since you get less meat with the same number of deer killed. But that's really in the eye and belly of the hunter. If you'd rather take the fawn that offers a perfect shot halfway through the season than take your chances at maybe getting a last-chance buck and maybe getting skunked, I see nothing wrong with that.

[huntitall]

fawns do taste the best, if I am hunting the controlled hunt, and we have anterless tags, and with a group, ill shoot the fawn before I shoot the does.

[flytyermiller]

i'll take a fawn if i need to for a variety of reason. (i don't trophy hunt, i sometimes don't need the amount of meat that comes with a 300lbs buck, maybe it's the last day of season and that's all i see and i need the meat...etc, etc...)

but let me ask this question to anyone opposed to hunting fawns, are you also opposed to the calf hunt??? cause if you aren't then you need to review how you judge things.

[werner.reiche]

What is the issue with management of deer in Ontario? NB and NS and I hear Quebec are booming.

Ontario has been trying to reduce the deer population since about 2005 or so, and has been handing out tons of doe tags. The management strategy has worked and our deer pops are likely back to where they were in the early/mid 1990's. Problem is we now have a generation of deer hunters who knew only of high deer pops and think that every day in the bush should result in multiple sightings and opportunities. Sure it's worse than the early 2000's now, but historically, its still pretty good.

[blasted_saber]

MNRF limits fawn harvest via anterless tags. Its not "up to us" to do anything about it. Theyve determined a figure which they are comfortable with and issued tags to that effect.